An October 2026 investigation by German NGO Lobbycontrol, based on the EU Transparency Register and reported by Der Spiegel, found that major automakers lobbied members of the hard-right 'Patriots for Europe' group in the European Parliament ahead of a vote on weakening the EU's 2035 combustion-engine ban. Volkswagen held 4 meetings with Patriots for Europe lawmakers since summer 2024, more than BMW (2 meetings, which said political extremists were 'explicitly not the focus' of its activities) though fewer than Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis. The industry association ACEA, of which Volkswagen is a member, said it 'engages in discussions with all relevant parliamentarians to clarify the industry's position.'
Nvidia and AMD lobbied the White House and senior Commerce Department officials in September 2026 to stop lawmakers from enacting stricter China chip export controls in the annual must-pass defense policy bill, despite the proposed limits having bipartisan Congressional support. CEO Jensen Huang leveraged his close relationship with the Trump administration, including a planned AI meeting with the president and House Speaker Mike Johnson, to press the case against the restrictions.
Nubank co-founder and CEO David Velez has publicly and repeatedly urged the Colombian government to eliminate or dismantle the country's 'tasa de usura' (usury rate cap), which limits maximum interest rates lenders can charge. Velez reiterated the call in September 2026 alongside Nubank's announcement of a 5-trillion-peso (~$1.3B) Colombia investment through 2030, arguing the cap is 'the biggest obstacle' to financial inclusion and that controlling prices limits credit markets. Economic-policy group ANIF opposed the proposal, warning that removing the cap would strip legal protection from vulnerable borrowers and could push more Colombians toward illegal 'gota a gota' lenders charging 382-666% annual rates. As Colombia's largest digital lender, Nubank would benefit financially from a higher or unregulated rate ceiling.
In August-September 2026 (announced August 25, 2026 in Abbeville; codenamed 'Project Osprey' during negotiation), Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed laws granting SpaceX's planned ~$100B Starbase Louisiana facility in Vermilion Parish a 25-year property tax exemption (estimated $23.8B in savings), roughly $3.6B in sales tax rebates, and exemptions from liability and nuisance claims (noise, vibration, heat, sonic booms) and from public records law. In exchange SpaceX pays Vermilion Parish about $25 million annually - roughly 2% of what standard property taxes on a facility of that value would generate. State lawmakers signed NDAs during negotiations, which were obtained via public records requests.
On July 17, 2026, Beijing-based Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, reportedly matching Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 at a fraction of the cost. The White House subsequently accused Moonshot of building K3 by distilling Claude, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent floating possible sanctions. Amodei escalated a campaign he had already been running (podcast interviews, public statements) claiming Chinese labs including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and Minimax 'stole' Claude's capabilities via large-scale distillation and that their benchmark scores are gamed, citing a held-back benchmark where Chinese models allegedly underperformed relative to their public SWE-bench scores. He proposed three policy responses: (1) chip export controls targeting China and smuggling networks, (2) crackdowns on large-scale distillation by Chinese labs, and (3) mandatory pre-release safety testing (cyber/bio/alignment) for 'sufficiently capable' models regardless of open or closed license or origin. Around July 25, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang posted an open letter opposing restrictions on open-weight models, with several AI companies publicly siding against Anthropic's framing. Critics — including a Washington Examiner op-ed and other independent analyses — argued each of Amodei's three proposals disproportionately burdens exactly the competitors currently undercutting Anthropic on price and performance (Chinese labs and open-weight developers who lack independent chip supply or resources for heavy compliance testing), amounting to a bid for regulatory capture dressed as safety advocacy. On July 28, Anthropic published a blog post ('Our position on open-weights models') with Amodei explicitly denying he supports a ban on open-weight models, distinguishing his opposition to state-backed distillation from opposition to open weights themselves.
On June 3, 2026, the European Commission appointed Jim Hagemann Snabe — chairman of Siemens and former SAP CEO — as Special Envoy for Industrial Artificial Intelligence, with a mandate covering AI infrastructure, data centres, HPC, and semiconductor supply chains. The appointment came weeks after Siemens, part of a new Brussels lobbying coalition called European Tech Creators (with SAP, ASML, Mistral, Airbus, Ericsson, and Nokia), had fiercely lobbied to weaken provisions of the EU AI Act. Snabe retained his Siemens chairmanship while taking the advisory role (though he suspended board seats at Google Cloud and C3 AI), and the Commission refused to detail what conflict-of-interest safeguards, if any, applied to the appointment. MEPs including Parliament's lead AI negotiator Brando Benifei publicly criticized the move, and lawmakers pressed the Commission for clarification.
In June 2026, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appointed Siemens supervisory board chairman Jim Hagemann Snabe as an unpaid special envoy on industrial AI, tasked with reporting on AI infrastructure and frontier AI adoption through March 2027. The appointment came weeks after Siemens successfully lobbied -- as part of the 'European Tech Creators' coalition alongside SAP, ASML, Mistral, Airbus, Ericsson, Nokia, and BMW -- to exempt products covered by the EU's machinery rules from the AI Act, an exemption incorporated into law via the 2026 omnibus simplification procedure. Four NGOs (Transparency International, Corporate Europe Observatory, LobbyControl, and The Good Lobby) filed a complaint arguing Snabe's continuing Siemens role compromises the envoy position's independence; after the Commission did not respond, they escalated to the EU Ombudsman, who opened a formal inquiry and ordered the Commission to respond by September 29, 2026. Forty members of the European Parliament (Greens, S&D, Renew, and The Left, but no members of von der Leyen's own EPP) separately demanded disclosure of the appointment's conflict-of-interest assessment.
On May 13-14, 2026, after media coverage of his absence from Trump's China delegation, Trump personally called Jensen Huang who then flew to Alaska to board Air Force One. Huang told reporters 'President Trump asked me to come' and praised both Trump and Xi Jinping as 'very inspiring, very welcoming.' The trip raised questions about Nvidia's China business and export control policy given Huang controls 80%+ of the AI accelerator market.
After the French Senate unanimously adopted the cross-party Darcos-Ouzoulias bill in April 2026 - which would have reversed the burden of proof in AI copyright-infringement cases, requiring AI companies to prove they did not use copyrighted works rather than creators proving they did - Mistral AI's public affairs director Audrey Herblin-Stoop told the National Assembly's economic affairs committee the bill was a 'litigation bonanza' with 'impossible proof' requirements, warning 'if we face lawsuits, we must be clear: we will struggle to raise funds.' Mistral then conducted an intensive lobbying campaign targeting parliamentary group leaders, including a May 7, 2026 meeting between CEO Arthur Mensch and National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet. On May 12, 2026, the bill was kept off the Assembly's agenda, despite a joint call for passage from 81 cultural and creators' organizations and a petition signed by over 25,000 people.
ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet joined the chief executives of Airbus, Ericsson, Mistral AI, Nokia, SAP and Siemens in a joint opinion piece published in Handelsblatt, Corriere della Sera and other outlets on May 5, 2026, following a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The letter called for replacing 'rigid, detailed requirements' in the EU AI Act with 'agile guardrails,' citing compliance work of six to twelve months per new AI system, and urged reduced regulatory burden alongside state-backed industrial policy support.
Testifying to the French National Assembly, Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch pressed lawmakers to loosen EU AI Act compliance thresholds, arguing the current 'systemic risk model' classification and related compliance burdens fall disproportionately on smaller companies and warning Europe had 'roughly two years' to build sovereign AI infrastructure or become a 'vassal state' dependent on US technology. The testimony continued a pattern of Mistral lobbying to raise the thresholds that trigger the AI Act's strictest obligations.
Google executive Kent Walker personally lobbied against California SB 1074 (the 'BASED Act'), coordinating with Apple to defeat the bill in a 3-3 tie vote on April 20, 2026. The bill would have banned self-preferencing by platforms owned by companies worth over $1 trillion. Five trade groups including Chamber of Progress (whose members include Google) issued coordinated opposition 'within minutes' of introduction.
Apple and Google coordinated lobbying to defeat California SB 1074 (the 'BASED Act'), which would have banned self-preferencing by platforms owned by companies worth over $1 trillion. The bill was killed in a 3-3 tie vote on April 20, 2026. Five trade groups including Chamber of Progress issued coordinated opposition 'within minutes' of introduction. Apple's Senior Director Tim Powderly and Google executive Kent Walker personally lobbied against the bill. Senator Scott Wiener described the opposition as a 'tidal wave' of corporate lobbying. Big Tech spent over $100M killing similar federal legislation in 2022.
$1.2B
At Hannover Messe on April 19, 2026, Siemens CEO Roland Busch said the company could not justify roughly EUR1 billion (about EUR500 million of it) in planned industrial AI investment staying in the EU given the bloc's AI Act and Data Act, which he argued regulate industrial AI the same way as consumer applications and add unnecessary oversight on top of already-regulated sectors. 'I cannot explain to my shareholders why I should invest in an environment where I am being held back,' Busch said. The statement followed an earlier March 25, 2026 warning to the Financial Times that EU 'AI sovereignty' efforts could be a 'disaster' for innovation speed. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz later publicly backed Siemens's position, saying the government would push to free 'industrial AI from the current, overly restrictive straitjacket' of EU rules.
In March 2026, Coinbase refused to endorse the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act twice, specifically opposing a clause banning yield on passive stablecoin holdings. Stablecoin-related revenue accounted for $1.35 billion (19% of total 2025 revenue). The obstruction triggered industry-wide boycott calls and stalled Senate legislation. Investor Tommy Shaughnessy publicly disagreed with CEO Brian Armstrong. Coinbase financially backs the Fairshake super PAC network, giving it significant political influence in the crypto sector.
Meta began a $65 million political spending push in February 2026 through four super PACs -- including newly formed 'Forge the Future Project' (backing Republicans) and 'Making Our Tomorrow' (backing Democrats) -- aimed at electing state-level candidates favorable to AI industry interests. Spending began in Illinois and Texas, generally favoring incumbents and open races over challenging sitting officials friendly to Meta's AI agenda.
On February 11, 2026, Marc Andreessen personally contributed $25 million to Leading the Future, a super PAC he co-founded with Ben Horowitz to elect candidates favorable to a light-touch AI regulatory environment. The donation was part of $42.1 million in personal 2026-cycle political spending disclosed by Andreessen, 97% of which went to super PACs rather than directly to candidates or parties.
Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz contributed $50 million to the AI-industry-focused Leading the Future super PAC and $47.5 million to the cryptocurrency-focused Fairshake super PAC, plus over $1 million to the RNC and MAGA Inc., totaling $93.8 million in disclosed 2026 midterm-cycle political spending -- reported as the largest of any single donor tracked for the cycle -- aimed at electing candidates favorable to light-touch AI and crypto regulation.
Microsoft deployed lobbyists to meet European Commission officials and submitted formal responses opposing a 'blanket ban on loot boxes for minors,' arguing parental controls already address the issue, and opposing requirements to display real-world prices for in-game purchases, saying this 'may not be possible, especially on small smartphone screens.' The lobbying was part of a broader industry campaign against the EU's planned Digital Fairness Act in which gaming and tech firms made up roughly 83% of nearly 100 Commission meetings on the draft law since December 2024.
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen published an open letter urging Brussels not to 'kill one of Europe's few tech success stories,' warning that incorporating consumer-protection guidance on in-game currencies into the EU's planned Digital Fairness Act could make free-to-play mobile games 'unplayable' in the EU. The intervention came amid a broader industry lobbying campaign, revealed by investigative outlet Follow the Money, in which gaming and tech companies made up roughly 83% of nearly 100 European Commission meetings on the draft law since late 2024, far outweighing consumer and child-safety advocates.